The Thiruvannamalai hill is an off shoot of the Eastern Ghats and has had similar vegetation in the past. The Javadi hills which are part of the Eastern ghats is a mere 40 km away and still has thriving forests.

ARS has planted hundreds of thousands of trees on the hill over the years. Only indigenous trees that belong to this region are planted on the hill.

Creating and maintaining fire lines on the hill to prevent fires from spreading and to aid in fire fighting

Maintaining a nursery for indigenous varieties of trees which in addition to supplying the trees for planting on the hill have also been distributed to schools, colleges and other institutions.

From barren to Green

The ARS was founded in 1988 by a small group of people who were extremely distressed by the terrible state of the sacred mountain Arunachala. What was once a beautifully rich ecosystem had become desertified and harsh to behold.

The Mountain was barren, the environs capable of only dryland farming. Water was scarce. The reforestation of Arunachala was a one-point action plan intended to reverse the adverse tide, a simple and self-evident dream that contained the seeds of adversity and toil but which has, within the short span of three decades yielded positive results beyond one's wildest imagination.

Today, this work continues in quiet and myriad ways. The mountain is green. Tiruvannamalai has become a booming city. The needs and challenges are new, but the essential goal remains the same: a better life for all sentient beings in harmony with Mother Nature.